A Queen of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 4)

“No,” I said.

He lifted his eyebrows. “Well, anyway, almost all of the dragons who came with us plan to stay. Most of them plan to go home at some point to make arrangements for the move. When they do, I have every belief they’ll try to convince others to join us. It’s inevitable that some will, and I think they’ll like what they find.”

“It might be hard for them to get used to people telling them what to do,” I said. “The dragons from the villages are used to holding their own council.”

“He’s a great natural alpha, Arly.” He leaned in a little to try to catch my eye. “That’s what they’ll respond to, and word got around about Finley before we left. People saw the way she flew, courageous and crazy, and then she handed Micah his hat in that final meeting with the elders. They’ll want to visit to see how she leads, and when they get there, they’ll fall under the couple’s spell. I think many will come, and most will stay.”

“We shall see,” I said.

“We shall hope,” Dee said. “We need the bodies. We’re sparse on people here, and even sparser on warriors.”

FOURTEEN

Finley

“Do we have to have a formal dinner, though?” I asked quietly as my spirited mare pranced beside Nyfain’s grumpy stallion.

I ducked to avoid a low branch scraping across my mostly coiffed hair that Leala had done up earlier. We’d been visiting villages for the last few hours, showing our faces, greeting people, and answering their questions.

“Weston is a powerful alpha,” Nyfain responded, humor coloring the bond. The sinking sun painted his handsome face in a soft glow, easing the severity of his sharp cheekbones and smoothing out his scars. “We’ve asked him to dinner to discuss his role in this kingdom and the length of time he plans to stay. He’ll expect that dinner to be formal. I’ve heard a suit was made for him. We all have to play our parts.”

He was playing his. He wore his golden livery collar over his shoulders, something he hadn’t worn to dinner last night because he hadn’t wanted people to notice that I didn’t have one. That was before word got out that he wasn’t the true heir. Hadriel had reported a great many people talking about it. Nyfain wore it now to remind people he’d be taking that title regardless of his bloodline.

I did not envy the idiot who chose to fuck with him, not when his dragon was eager for the challenge. Or the fool who decided to mess with me, for that matter. I wouldn’t get a chance to defend myself. Nyfain’s dragon had made it abundantly clear that he would rip the face off anyone who threatened his mate. My dragon purred every time it even partially came up.

Still, neither she nor I were purring now as we crossed the threshold into the last village on our list. Mine.

Hannon, who now had the very official-sounding title of head advisor, followed behind us. Although he hadn’t asked for his role any more than I had asked for mine, he was giving it everything he had, checking out each applicant for the advisory circle thoroughly and nominating a few of his own applicants based on those he met.

Hadriel kept pace beside him, and Tamara and a few others from my guard followed, along with a couple of other dragons from the old court, like Xavier. They were supposed to be our formal procession.

We were a parade of dragons through mostly non-dragon villages. Something I’d pointed out softly to Nyfain before we left.

He’d nodded, squinting a little as he watched them mounting their horses.

“We’ll fix it,” he’d replied. It sounded like he had some kind of plan, or maybe that was wishful thinking.

Eyes turned our way as we rode the horses at a walk down the lane, faces I’d known forever going a little slack upon seeing the prince and all his (modest) finery. When they shifted their gaze to me, it was as though they’d never met me. Their eyes sparkled with excitement. That was, until I saw a couple of Jedrek’s close friends loitering outside of the village pub.

“Why are they glowering at you?” Nyfain asked.

“They were Jedrek’s friends,” I replied, looking away, only to lay eyes on my ex-boyfriend, standing with his wife, looking at me with wide eyes. Smugness weaseled into me before I quickly looked somewhere else. I wasn’t sure how Nyfain would take a past romantic interest. I hadn’t been great at hearing about his, and I was nowhere near as possessive as he.

Kinda.

Nyfain still hadn’t heard the full account of my stay in the dungeon—we both knew he wouldn’t take it well, and he wanted to wait until he could do something about it—but he’d correctly surmised that Jedrek hadn’t made it out.